Walnut Babka

This Walnut Babka features the most delicious buttery yeasted brioche dough that is twisted around wonderful cinnamon sugar walnut filling. Moist, fluffy, crazy delicious nutty Babka is a good idea any time of the year, particularly around the holidays.

Jump to:

• 📖  What is babka
• 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• 🥣 Equipment notes
• ❓Recipe FAQs
• 🍞 Other Sweet Bread recipes
• Walnut Babka

📖  What is babka

A babka is a sweet braided bread that originated in the Jewish communities across the world like in Poland (that is why some call it Polish babka) or Hungary where I grew up. A traditional babka recipe is prepared with a yeast-leavened dough (similar or the same as challah) that is rolled out and spread with a filling such as chocolate, cinnamon, fruit, poppy seed, etc. Then, rolled up and the filling twisted inside before baking.

Making Walnut babka is really hassle-free, and easy and it is mostly about waiting for the dough to proof. You can totally make it at home even if you are a beginner baker!

Beginning in the 2010s the popularity of babka increased across the United States, especially in New York, where a popular Israeli bakery: Breads Bakery began to sell their babka that I had the pleasure to try in 2022 on my New York trip!

🌟 Why this is the best recipe

1. It is super easy – No fancy ingredients are needed! Babka is literally made of flour, butter, milk, etc. The Walnut babka recipe comes together really easily, a totally doable even if you are a beginner - however please make sure you pay attention to my Baking tips
2. It is not much effort, most of the time is just waiting for the dough to proof – The amount of effort making Babka is really minimal, however, you will have to rest the dough in between steps. Since Babka is a yeasted dough, you can´t really speed the process of proofing. Rest assured, the time you will spend in the kitchen itself is absolutely minimal
3. It is super delicious – Imagine a delicious buttery walnut swirl in soft, pillowy brioche dough. This Walnut Babka is totally addictive! A lovely sweet bread that will equally fill your heart and body. Read my secrets below about how to make the babka not just moist but also super shiny
4. No special equipment is needed – A stand mixer is super handy when it comes to kneading the Babka dough but apart from that, all you need is a loaf tin to bake, and you are good to go! Having said that, you can totally knead the dough with your hands as my Mom does
5. It is super versatile – The Walnut Babka recipe can be made using different spices eg. cardamom, cinnamon, or orange zest in the dough, or you can easily replace walnut with pecan, apples, poppy seed, etc. This recipe can easily be turned into a raisin walnut babka, chocolate walnut babka or you can even leave the walnut out and make my Nutella babka recipe or my Apple Cinnamon Babka recipe instead!

📝 Ingredient notes

1. Butter: Use always unsalted butter as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. In this recipe, the butter needs to be at room temperature so soft enough to be able to knead into the dough. Make sure that you avoid last minute microwaving as melted butter won´t incorporate into the dough
2. Sugar: A small amount of white granulated sugar is used to make the babka dough. No need to use too much sugar as the filling will make this Babka sweet enough. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my sugar guide
3. Yeast: I am using fresh yeast in this babka recipe, however, it can be made with dry yeast too. My instant dry yeast pack says that its 7 g yeast equals 25 g fresh yeast. I used 12,5 g fresh yeast to make this recipe which is equal to 3,5 g dry yeast (approx. 1 teaspoon). Please check your local brand and calculate your yeast needs accordingly. Also, check my ultimate yeast guide out for more information on how to handle yeast
4. Milk: Use lukewarm temperature whole milk. Make sure your milk is definitely not cold as that would not work out too well with the yeast, but too warm milk can also destroy the yeast
5. Egg: Room temperature as always, 1 egg + 1 yolk to keep the Babka extra moist and delicious
6. Flour: Walnut Babka is effectively a sweet bread similar to French brioche bread or cinnamon roll. Make sure to use high protein content bread flour which contains more gluten and helps to achieve that lovely airy and chewy texture everyone loves. It might not be called bread flour in your country, so check the protein content and choose one that is higher. If you really can´t find bread flour, go with all purpose flour. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my flour guide
7. Salt: An essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. Balances flavor and enhances other ingredients
8. Filling: This Babka features a wonderful walnut filling. All you will need is walnuts that are toasted and coarsely chopped, butter, granulated or brown sugar, and optionally 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon or perhaps raisin if you fancy it. Chopped walnut can either be made in a food processor or by hand using a sharp knife. Of course, you can substitute it with other nuts eg. pecans, check my pecans vs walnuts article for more information.
9. Syrup: Syrup makes this Walnut Babka shiny and even moister. I am using a combination of sugar, water, and lemon juice syrup that makes the Babka extra special and less sweet than soaking it with simple sugar syrup

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

1. How to activate the yeast

I know a lot of people are afraid of handling yeast, please don´t be scared! It is super easy if you follow some simple rules that are mainly related to temperature! Check my ultimate yeast guide out for more information on how to handle yeast!

The process is easy: heat ½ cup whole milk until lukewarm, mix half of the sugar in, then sprinkle yeast on top and wait 10 minutes until yeast starts to foam. The same process applies whether you are using fresh or dried yeast. The key here is that your milk is warm enough (lukewarm) but not too hot. Make sure that your kitchen is not too cold (above 20C / 68F). If yeast does not start bubbling after 10 minutes, chances are very low that the dough will rise. I recommend starting over again.

Please make sure that you start using the activated yeast after it foams. Leaving it on the kitchen counter for too long might result in yeast overflowing and eventually breaking.

💡 Top Tip: Follow the quantity of the yeast. Your Babka won´t get better or softer by adding more yeast! There is an exact science of adding leaving agents to baking products, and adding less or adding more is an equally bad choice.

2. How to knead the Babka dough

This Walnut babka is basically a sweet bread, therefore the process of making is similar to baking bread meaning you will need to knead the dough. This is a super easy Babka recipe, and this is the process of making it step-by-step:

1. Once the yeast is foamy, place all the wet ingredients (the yeasty mixture + egg) into the bowl of your stand mixer along with the infused saffron
2. Then, after mixing for a minute, add the dry ingredients (bread flour, rest of the sugar, salt) and start kneading with the help of the dough hook.
3. First, it will look a bit messy, but after a few minutes, the dough will start to come together
4. Then, add butter in very small portions piece by piece while the mixer is on 
5. Very important that butter is at room temperature and soft, but not too soft or liquid which would make it impossible to mix that into the dough. Butter might not get mixed in immediately but keep your Stand mixer on, and eventually, it will all come together
6. Once the dough comes together, you will have to knead it for another approx. 10 minutes on medium-high speed up until the dough is super shiny, elastic, and achieves the gluten window! At this point, the dough should be soft, but not stick at all. If you are doing it by hand, it might take 20-30 minutes depending on how strong you knead the dough

💡 Top Tip: Even if the dough might look too sticky at the beginning, do not change this recipe and add a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I promise the dough will come together in the process of kneading and does not require more flour or milk etc.

3. How long does it take for the Babka to rise

There are two alternatives for rising the dough: quickly at room temp or slower in the fridge overnight. I tried both and can confirm that while the longer rise has the benefit of already working with a colder dough, the room temperature rise also works very well and provides wonderful results.

For the overnight version place the dough into a glass or plastic bowl, cover with plastic a wrap and leave it in the fridge for min 12 hours (overnight). The Overnight rise in the fridge not just makes the brioche texture fluffier and softer, but also makes your life easier when it comes to shaping and twisting the dough. With that, you will work with a cold dough that has extra gluten development, therefore, is easier to handle.

If you go for the room temperature quicker rise, place the dough into a glass or plastic bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and leave the dough at room temp for 1-2 hours. The exact time greatly depends on the temperature of your kitchen, try to find a warm spot but avoid direct heat. Once the dough doubles in size, punch the air out and start the rolling process as per below.

💡 Top Tip: Rising any yeast-based dough is a super delicate matter and there are two options as per above. Do not attempt to speed up the process in the oven, it would result in a dough that is over-risen and butter melting all over

4. How to fill and twist Babka

The filling and shaping process of your Cinnamon Walnut Babka happens after the dough had its first rise in the fridge overnight.

Have you ever had a disastrous experience shaping a soft babka dough that melts while the filling is all over the kitchen counter? Most recipes fail to explain one thing: the importance of TEMPERATURE! while shaping Babka.

1. Prepare the cinnamon sugar walnut filling by melting butter then mixing it with cinnamon, sugar, and of course walnuts that are toasted and coarsely chopped. Add raisins if you like
2. Chill the filling and make sure that you use it on room temperature. If mixture is warm, it would melt the dough. If mixture is cold, it would be impossible to spread it over the dough.
3. Prepare your loaf tin and place parchment paper inside
4. Roll the Babka dough on Silicone baking mat in that way you do not need to add flour while rolling. I suggest to roll it into a rectangle of 42x30 cm / 16x12 inches. Alternatively roll the dough out on lightly floured work surface
5. Pop rolled out Babka dough into the freezer to chill for 3-5 minutes before filling
6. Spread the cinnamon sugar walnut filling on the Babka dough evenly, and smooth it with an Offset spatula
7. Pop the Babka back to the freezer again for 3-5 minute before rolling it up. You have to chill the dough so you will be able to roll it up neatly
8. Roll the Babka up tightly and neatly from the longer end. Press to seal the end onto the roulade
9. Pop the Babka back to the freezer for another 5 minutes to properly chill
10. Now using a sharp knife, cut the Babka into half lengthwise. Try to cut it exactly in the middle of the roulade
11. Check whether Babka filling is firm enough to proceed with shaping. If too runny, pop Babka again back to the freezer for a few minutes to chill
12. Place Babka log over each other with filling facing up and twist the dough with your hands on both sides
13. Gently squeeze together the ends and carefully lift Babka into a prepared loaf pan
14. Now onto second proofing

💡 Top Tip: The most important part of the shaping process is always working with a dough that is cold enough. If during the shaping process the dough gets too warm, pop it back into the freezer for a few minutes

5. How to bake

First of all how not to bake this Walnut Babka? Never bake it without a second proofing! 

With the second rise, the dough should almost double and it might take 1-2h depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Cover your Babka so it does not dry out (I place it into a zip bag), and place it into a warm spot in your house, yet not too hot as you also do not want the filling to melt.

During the end of the second rise pre-heat your oven to 190C / 374F (no fan), then once Babka dough nicely risen place it into the oven, lower the temp to 180C / 356F (no fan) and bake for about 40 minutes.

💡 Top Tip: Please make sure you invest into an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer to avoid under-baked or burnt Babka especially if you typically have trouble with your oven. Check the progress at 30 minutes and adjust the temperature and time, if needed. The Walnut Babka is ready when the toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

6. Secrets behind moist and shiny Babka

There is a moisturizing stage involved straight after baking, concretely you will have to pour some hot syrup over the Cinnamon Walnut Babka immediately after it is out of the oven.

The syrup I am using is a mixture of water, sugar, and lemon juice that balances the sweetness of the Babka without making it overly sweet. It gives the perfect shine while keeping the Babka extra moist and soft, you must try it!

Before serving, feel free to drizzle some homemade walnut butter over the babka. If you want to try another type of yeasted bread with walnut, make sure to make this Hungarian Chimney Cake!

💡 Top Tip: Let first the syrup sink in, and the Babka is slightly cool before removing it from the tin. I suggest moving it to a cooling rack when it is lukewarm so you won´t break it.

🥣 Equipment notes

First and foremost make sure you measure the ingredients with the help of a Digital scale.

For kneading the dough a Stand mixer is super handy with the dough hook on, however, if you are strong like my Mom you can attempt doing it by hand, good luck!

Rolling pin is totally necessary to roll the Babka dough out then for spreading the filling an Offset spatula is very handy as you want to make sure that the filling is spread evenly and neatly. If you want to be a Pro, use Silicone baking mat to roll the dough out in that case dough will certainly not stick and no need to use extra flour.

For baking the Babka you will need a Loaf pan, the quantity stated in the recipe makes a standard size 1 pound loaf tin that is 12x22cm / 5x8 inches. Make sure you place parchment paper inside so it will be easy to remove the baked Babka.

❓Recipe FAQs

🍞 Other Sweet Bread recipes